Finally.

Summer’s one of those seasons you’re supposed to love, but by the end of it you just think, “Come on already…”

What’s been going on this week?  Phyllis Green was on the radar.  She’s a 90 year old lady living in hospice care who has decided to start blogging.  I know it’s not exactly (or even remotely) a Commons blog but I wanted to put her in the round-up as a tip of the hat.  I love that someone can  want to blog at 90.  I wonder if she F5’s for comments all the time too?

Speaking of blogs, if you missed it there’s an amazing post up over on the wiki called ‘Blogs to Follow‘ that has a ton of great edu-blogs on it.  The folks over at the Digital Humanities Initiative posted it as a resource and everyone should take a look at the list they’ve put together.  It’s basically the blog roll cheat sheet that I’ve been waiting for.  Thanks DHI!

Everyone go hug a librarian because next week is BANNED BOOKS WEEK.  From their website it’s weird to learn that Catcher in the Rye and The Color Purple are still freaking people out.  Any CUNY librarians on the front want to share some war stories?

Meanwhile at the Commons:

Tony Picciano @APicciano called everyone’s attention to a NY Times piece that suggests the “blood on the floor” (as I once heard it gruesomely called)  from state budget cuts to public education is largely because states have shifted their focus over to supporting Medicaid.  So wait a minute, wait a minute…do I have this right?  25 years ago states invested in a generation’s education and now that generation needs medical assistance so we’re gutting this generation’s educational structures?  Maybe that’s a touch two dimensional but I can’t help thinking this probably has something to do with which generation actually shows up at the voting booth.  PoliSci folks – c’mon – call me out on that.

Helldriver @Helldriver posted this week with a blog titled ‘Briefly.’  I didn’t believe it.  I was ready to sit back and spend twenty minutes reading his blog and another thirty minutes downloading songs.  Alas, it was brief.

Part of my job is to keep a pulse on the blogs so I have no idea how I missed this.  There’s a newer blog up called The Obama Presidency being written by Kristen Cahill Garcia @kcahillgarcia that I know I’ve covered at least once before.  What I hadn’t realized was how prolific this blog had been in between posts!   This week had a ton of interesting posts up – I’ve got too much catching up to do now to say much, but  I will say that everyone has these weird personal metrics for Obama that are probably wildly unfair given the scope of his presidency but exist none the less.  While it might be unfair to be a single issue critic, if he doesn’t manage to at least shut down this DADT business the honeymoon is over.  Well…you know…figuratively speaking of course…there wasn’t a honeymoon for myself and the president, he’s been a vocal opponent of gay marriage.

David Shaprio’s @Dshapiro32 The Inference of Fraud showed up again this week with a micro-review of The Studs Lonigan Trilogy.  I think it was a good review.  “Thumbs Up” usually means but the admonishment of such a low bar made me wonder if I missed something there.  Either way I could use a good book that’ll make me feel less ignorant than the protagonist, which is what it says it’ll do right there on there on the label.  If I finish this thing and you we’re wrong, we’re taking it to the comments.

Alright, that’s the week that was.  Next week – first round up of the fall!